Uptown TIF vote delayed after residents question where $95 million will be spent

A look at conditions in the neighborhood north of the Memphis Medical District.
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July 28, 2017 - St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is seen from the intersection of Danny Thomas and North Parkway in the Winchester Park neighborhood. St. Jude's fundraising arm and Methodist LeBonheur are seeking to expand tax-increment financing to help create neighborhoods where their new employees might want to live.(Photo: Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)Buy Photo

A proposed extension of Uptown's tax increment financing district ran into questions Thursday about where up to $95 million in revenues would be spent over the next 14 years.

The measure was delayed after some Uptown residents sought assurances their neighborhood won't take a back seat to an expansion area north of the Medical District.

The Memphis-Shelby County Community Redevelopment Agency deferred to a committee to balance residents’ concerns against proponents’ belief that the expansion won’t work unless revenues are shared.

Rychetta Watkins, an Uptown resident since 2008, said she wants to see the expansion area improved, but she believes finishing Uptown should get priority.

“I feel like I took a gamble in buying my house in Uptown, believing the vision that was sold to me, that eventually it would be filled with affordable and market-rate housing. And I have yet to see that happen,” Watkins said.

“So before we go rushing off to some new project, the new shiny toy that’s just down the road, what I’m saying is finish the unfinished business,” Watkins added.

ALSAC, the fund-raising arm of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare applied for the TIF expansion as nonprofit facilitators, not as developers or potential recipients of funding.

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July 28, 2017 - LeBonheur Children's Hospital is seen behind a vacant lot at the intersection of Ayers and Mosby in the Winchester Park neighborhood. St. Jude's fundraising arm and Methodist LeBonheur are seeking to expand tax-increment financing to help create neighborhoods where their new employees might want to live.(Photo: Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)

Tax increment financing sets aside property tax increases within a designated area to spend on projects in that area. It requires approval by the City Council, County Commission or both.

Fueled by rising property values on Mud Island, the Uptown TIF has raised more than $60 million and spent more than $40 million over 16 years on housing, infrastructure and elimination of blight in an area directly north of Downtown.

The applicants want Uptown’s momentum continued and expanded, ALSAC chief legal officer Sara Hall said. They believe the Uptown TIF, which gets 90 percent of its revenue from Mud Island, has the money to benefit a larger area.

Community input would ultimately determine where the money is spent, according to Hall and Tommy Pacello of the Memphis Medical District Collaborative, which supports the application.

The new, expanded Uptown TIF would be one of the agency's first community-based programs, along with Binghamton.

The board considered adding a provision that would keep money from the original Uptown from being spent in the expansion area, unless it is repaid.

Applicants believe the expansion area by itself won’t generate enough revenue to carry out revitalization on the scale that’s needed, Hall said.

Andrew Murray, senior project manager with PGAV Planners, said the Uptown TIF expansion is one of a number of measures that would take approval of the council and commission.

The Uptown TIF has $7.8 million that hasn’t been spent, out of an approved limit of $50 million. The board on Thursday also approved a request for proposals for projects to be funded with that money, such as sidewalks and alleys.

Murray said the agency will seek city and county approval of an additional $95 million in spending over the next 14 years.

The TIF is on pace to generate “much more” than $95 million, potentially closer to $150 million, Murray said. It already has about $12 million of that $95 million in the bank, but can’t spend it until a new limit is set by the city and county.